"soft" business for top MBA?

i'm just wondering if people who have "soft"/non-quantitative intensive business jobs get into top MBA programs. by this i mean people like low- and mid-level managers working for large corporations (e.g. fortune 500) and such.

do they exist at places like harvard, stanford, wharton, etc.? (or even anderson or marshall?) it seems like the only way to get into those MBA programs is through prestigious, high-powered, hard/quant-intensive jobs like i-banking, consulting, finance, etc. and working at a firm rather than working at a large company.

also, is it more inherently difficult for those managers to have amazing resumes and quality work experience than the i-bankers, consultants, etc.?

Replies to: "soft" business for top MBA?

Absolutely. There are plenty of MBA students with corporate background. However, most don't sign up the full time programs these days as they rather pursue the MBA (or EMBA) while continue to work. People who go full time are usually "career switchers".

Personally, I think it is easier to develop leadership (or evidence of) in most corporations.

i'm just wondering if people who have "soft"/non-quantitative intensive business jobs get into top MBA programs. by this i mean people like low- and mid-level managers working for large corporations (e.g. fortune 500) and such.

It depends on what you mean by 'soft'. But there are indeed plenty of people who come from backgrounds in advertising/marketing, sales, public relations, and so forth that might be called "soft" skills, at least in terms of requiring relatively little math knowledge.

thanks. i guess mainly it seemed like business school seemed to value high-powered business results more than actual leadership or management experience. (i mean, there are articles out there about the crisis of MBA programs because they're mostly accepting people who don't have leadership or management skills despite their strong work experience).

but good point that managers probably do a part-time MBA or EMBA instead, especially if their company might pay for it if they work part-time... so maybe that's why they're less common at full-time MBA programs.

good point that managers probably do a part-time MBA or EMBA instead, especially if their company might pay for it if they work part-time... so maybe that's why they're less common at full-time MBA programs.

This has been the national trend for the last decade. The PT MBA/EMBA (mostly corporate warriors) is a booming business for b-schools while most traditional programs (except the top ones) are shrinking. Even some of the top 15 schools are diversifying into other markets. If (A BIG IF) IBC & MC firms start letting their analysts pursuing MBAs on a PT basic, you can count on many b-schools going out of business, literally.

I am probably one out of eight (from my former company) who chose to pursue the MBA full time. For me, one year "honeymoon" (an really expensive one!) beats the prospect of flying between Dallas and O'hare every weekend for 3+ years. Plus, my employer would never let me shop for opportunities while on their dime. So, back to your admission question, the admission isn't just the same for daytime and PT programs given the applicant pools. Hope this makes sense to you.